Conversations
  • Home
  • Books
  • Sustainability
    • Climate Action
    • Integrity
    • Rubbish Challenge
    • Mental health
    • Consultancy
    • Policy
    • Carbon
    • Waste
    • Plastic
    • Safe-to-fail
  • Creation
    • Awhi: Women in Creation Care
    • Climate Theology
    • Earth Day
    • Wellbeing and Climate Change
    • Heaven and Earth
    • Prayers
    • Worship resources
    • Life, the Universe, and God study
    • Eco Church Story
    • Maori & the environment
    • 12 Motivations for EcoMission
    • Motivation and Calling
    • Eco Mission
    • Eco-Mission in NZ
    • Science
  • Worship
    • Advent & Christmas >
      • Advent
      • Christmas
      • Nativity Plays
    • Easter >
      • Lent: Journey in Psalms
      • Maundy Thursday
      • Good Friday
      • Easter Day
      • Passover meal
    • Pentecost
    • Hold the World Gently
    • Kids & all-age worship
    • Call to Worship
    • Confession
    • Communion
    • Blessings
    • Bilingual & Te Reo
    • Baptism
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
    • Night Prayer
    • Trinity
    • Quiet
    • Worship songs
    • Kids songs
    • More Worship Resources >
      • Creeds
      • Lords Prayer variations
      • Little Linking Bits
      • Celtic Prayers
      • Harvest
      • Healing
      • Commissioning
      • A new ministry
      • Journal Reflection resource for Lent
      • Liturgy of the Elements
      • Spirit who defies defining
      • Pet Blessing
      • Psalms in Worship
      • Ephesians worship resources
    • Poem-Prayers >
      • Pictures in my home
      • Slow things
      • Does the sea love me?
      • Drop
      • Tipped out
      • Silence
      • The Swallowed Sword
      • More of You
      • Sometimes
      • Jerusalem Dawning
      • Hopewell Psalm
      • The Visitor's Psalm
      • The Seagull’s Psalm
      • Leunig
  • Psalms
    • Psalms 1-10 >
      • Psalm 1: The Two Ways
      • Psalm 2: Wrath on a hill
      • Psalm 3: The Shield around me
      • Psalm 4: I rest in you
      • Psalm 5: Coming Home
      • Psalm 6: Worn with weeping
      • Psalm 7: The fury of my enemies
      • Psalm 8: Out of the mouths of babes
      • Psalm 9: The weeds and the wheat
      • Psalm 10: Why, Lord, why??
    • Psalms 11-20 >
      • Psalm 11: The XBox Psalm
      • Psalm 12: As in the days of Noah
      • Psalm 13: How long??
      • Psalm 14: All fall short
      • Psalm 15: Be Do-ers of The Word
      • Psalm 16: Fullness of Joy
      • Psalm 17: Under attack
      • Psalm 18: Part A - In Christ
      • Psalm 18: Part B- The Volcano Psalm
      • Psalm 18: Part C- Jesus’ Resurrection Song
      • Psalm 18: Part D- The Superman Psalm
      • Psalm 19: Song of the Stars
      • Psalm 20: God bless you!
    • Psalms 21-30 >
      • Psalm 21: Honouring a godly leader
      • Psalm 22: The Crucifixion Psalm
      • Psalm 23: A Collection
      • Psalm 24: Lift up the Ancient Doors
      • Psalm 25: The Covenant Way
      • Psalm 26: True North
      • Psalm 27: Take courage, my heart!
      • Psalm 28: Are you listening?
      • Psalm 29: The Hurricane Psalm
      • Psalm 30: Joy in the morning
    • Psalms 31-40 >
      • Psalm 31: Strength in exhaustion
      • Psalm 32: The Horse-Trainer's Psalm
      • Psalm 33: Rejoice today!
      • Psalm 34: Always Praising!
      • Psalm 35: Trapped and slandered
      • Psalm 36: Far-Reaching Love
      • Psalm 37: Keep Calm and Carry On
      • Psalm 38: The Burn-out Psalm
      • Psalm 39: A crisis of purpose
      • Psalm 40: The Mud Psalm
    • Psalm 41-50 >
      • Psalm 41: Bad friends
      • Psalm 42: As a deer
      • Psalm 43: A walk of faith
      • Psalm 44: A formal complaint
      • Psalm 45: The Royal Wedding
      • Psalm 46: We will not fear!
      • Psalm 47: A Shout of Praise
      • Psalm 48: Hymn to Jerusalem
      • Psalm 49: Death and Taxes
      • Psalm 50: True Worship
    • Psalms 51-60 >
      • Psalm 51: Standing under the shower of Confession
      • Psalm 52: God sees through
      • Psalm 53: No God?
      • Psalm 54: Help me now as you’ve helped me before
      • Psalm 55: Betrayed by your best friend
      • Psalm 56: The Worrywort’s Psalm
      • Psalm 57: Wake up the day
      • Psalm 58: The Snake Psalm
      • Psalm 59: Safe in the Tower
      • Psalm 60: The Earthquake Psalm
    • Psalms 61-70 >
      • Psalm 61: Can you hear me, God?
      • Psalm 62: Wait in Silence
      • Psalm 63: Hide and Seek
      • Psalm 64: It's not OK!
      • Psalm 65: He’s got the whole world in his hands!
      • Psalm 66: Come and hear!
      • Psalm 67: All you peoples praise!
      • Psalm 68: Gifts for his people
      • Psalm 69: The Mud Psalm
      • Psalm 70: Hurry up!
    • Psalms 71-80 >
      • Psalm 71: All our lives long
      • Psalm 72: Long live the King!
      • Psalm 73: The Jealous Psalm
      • Psalm 74: Destruction and persecution
      • Psalm 75: The pillars of the earth
      • Psalm 76: Weapons of war
      • Psalm 77: The Sleepless Psalm
      • Psalm 78: Tell our story to our children
      • Psalm 79: The terrible prison
      • Psalm 80: God’s shining smile
    • Psalms 81-90 >
      • Psalm 81: Honey from the rock
      • Psalm 82: The Judge’s Judgment
      • Psalm 83: The enemies of Israel
      • Psalm 84: How lovely is your house
      • Psalm 85: See what God is doing!
      • Psalm 86: An undivided heart
      • Psalm 87: The Census Psalm
      • Psalm 88: The Rejection Psalm
      • Psalm 89: The Chosen One
      • Psalm 90: A puff of dust
    • Psalms 91-100 >
      • Psalm 91: An Invitation to Deeper Prayer
      • Psalm 92: Saying thanks at bedtime
      • Psalm 93: Water rising
      • Psalm 94: Praying for a world in trouble
      • Psalm 95: Come let us sing for joy
      • Psalm 96: Words run out
      • Psalm 97: Rejoice, the Lord is King!
      • Psalm 98: Sing along a new song
      • Psalm 99: If you shake us
      • Psalm 100: The joyful parade
    • Psalms 101-110 >
      • Psalm 101: Call me loyal
      • Psalm 102: The time has come!
      • Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O my soul
      • Psalm 104: Psalm for Aotearoa
      • Psalms 105, 106 & 107: History Psalms
      • Psalm 108: A wake-up call
      • Psalm 109: SO ANGRY!!
      • Psalm 110: All about Jesus
    • Psalm 111-120 >
      • Psalm 111: Praise the Lord, now and forever!
      • Psalm 112: Welcome to the good life!
      • Psalm 113: From the rising of the sun
      • Psalm 114: Skipping mountains
      • Psalm 115: Toy gods
      • Psalm 116: Death could not hold me down
      • Psalm 117: The Shortest Psalm
      • Psalm 118: Pointing to the risen Lord
      • Psalm 119: The Longest Psalm
      • Psalm 120: Speaking peace at home
    • Psalm 121-130 >
      • Psalm 121: The Bodyguard
      • Psalm 122: The Peace of Jerusalem
      • Psalm 123: Asking for help
      • Psalm 124: Like a mouse
      • Psalm 125: Good Balance
      • Psalm 126: A harvest of joy
      • Psalm 127: The Lord builds the house
      • Psalm 128: Live long and prosper
      • Psalm 129: Attacked and whipped
      • Psalm 130: The Dawn Psalm
    • Psalms 131-140 >
      • Psalm 131: Calm and Quiet
      • Psalm 132: The Forever King
      • Psalm 133: Living in Unity
      • Psalm 134: A circle of blessing
      • Psalm 135: Come on, people, praise!
      • Psalm 136: Endless love
      • Psalm 137: By the rivers of Babylon
      • Psalm 138: Thank you for your love!
      • Psalm 139: The Omniscience Psalm
      • Psalm 140: Our God saves
    • Psalms 141-150 >
      • Psalm 141: The Goody-good’s Psalm
      • Psalm 142: Brought Low
      • Psalm 143: A Psalm for Easter Saturday
      • Psalm 144: Blessed are God’s People
      • Psalm 145: We will tell your praise
      • Psalm 146: God at Work
      • Psalm 147: The Winter Psalm
      • Psalm 148: Calling all creation!
      • Psalm 149: The Double Edged Sword
      • Psalm 150: Kiwi Praise!?
    • About Psalms >
      • Jesus and Psalms
      • Violence in Psalms
      • History Psalms, a discussion of 105 & 106
      • Brueggeman on Psalms
    • Psalms in Worship
    • Advent & Christmas Psalms
    • Lectionary Psalms
  • Word
    • Te Reo Māori and faith
    • Listen!
    • Nurture the Holy Spirit
    • The Bible >
      • Making Sense of the Bible
      • People and Stories >
        • Three Wise Men
        • Martha and Mary
        • Samuel & David
        • Bit Parts
        • James who??
        • Joseph
        • Peter's Wife
        • Bible Love stories
      • John
      • Acts
      • Christmas
      • Easter
      • Dramatic readings
    • God
    • Jesus
    • Life
    • Church
    • Spirituality
    • Identity
    • End Times
    • Israel >
      • Israel: Tough questions
      • Israel: Stories in Place
      • Theological Alleyways
      • Lovely Ladies
  • Ministry
    • Moving On
    • Ethics
    • Fatigue
    • Spirit ministry
    • Pastoral Preaching
    • Maori Ministry
    • Minister's Grief in Ministry Transition
    • When the shit hits the fan
    • This Sacred Moment
    • Poems on ministry
    • Leadership resources
    • Promoting church
    • Musings
    • Pandemic >
      • Short of Breath Theological reflection
      • Stress
      • Alone Together
      • Pangolins and the Fall
      • Mental Health factors
      • Church response
      • Psalm 91: An Invitation to Deeper Prayer
      • Quiet
      • Solitude
    • Burning Bush
  • Supervision
    • Should I sack my supervisor??
    • Supervision FAQs
    • Supervision with Silvia
    • Why supervision?
    • What to bring to supervision?
    • Methods in supervision
    • Ethics in supervision
    • Pastoral Supervision
    • Qualifications
  • Counselling
    • Counselling with Silvia
    • Non-Anxious Living
    • Relationship Repair Kit
    • Poems on therapy
  • Love
    • Love Poems >
      • How to say 'I love you'?
      • The Fabric of Love
      • Be at home in my heart
      • Falling
      • Out of thin air
      • After the waves
      • Mid-life Menagerie
      • How are you?
      • Vacuum
      • Marriage Maths
    • Marriage >
      • Wedding Vows
      • Anniversaries
      • Ethics & Commitment
      • Expectations
      • Desire
      • Emotional Needs
    • Personality
    • Listening
    • Creativity
    • Laughter
    • Trauma/Recovery
    • Stress
    • Motherhood and Spirituality
    • Growing: Human & faith development
    • Dementia
    • Grief >
      • Experience of grief
      • Making sense of death
      • A Grieving of Poems
    • The hardest thing: youth suicide
  • About
    • Contact
    • Family History
    • Pumpkins on the road
    • Trip >
      • Hong Kong & Freising
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • England
      • San Francisco
      • Ben's page

Creation
​... worship resources

Caring for the environment is central to a living faith. Our denominal mission statements affirm this. But so often we fail to give this expression in our week-by-week worship life. 
In this page I am working on drawing together some links and resources to help the church focus our good intentions and bring our praise and lament to God.

'In the Beginning'
A litany on the creation of Creation
Could be used in a Communion service

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
all that is, seen and unseen
all that is, every atom, every star.
Day One God said
Let there be light
and there was light - 
exploding light, brilliant light, gentle Spirit light,
light in the darkness,
and the darkness has never put it out. ...

Picture
A Psalm for the Weirding of the Weather
A climate change prayer especially for harvest time

Picture
Painting by Tony Walter: 'Hands of God'
Picture
Photo and painting: Jessica Ramage

Picture
For God so loved the World
Lenten study

A Journey through Lent
exploring God’s heart for our environment


Eight practical, reflective, Biblical studies
through March and April 2019
Written by Silvia Purdie

It is formatted over 24 pages to be printed as an A5 booklet (6 sheets). 
Includes activities, discussion and prayer suggestions for children as well as adults.
Connecting our concern for our natural world with the themes of Lent, Easter and Pentecost.

Fantastic to get feedback! 
... a testimonial from a local group:
It's been on my heart the last few weeks to email you an appreciation for the Lenten study that you prepared and made available this year. 
Each week our small group started with reflections from the preceding 7 days, and then read together the new study choosing one of the readings to "dwell" on more deeply, reading it through usually three times from different versions and sharing reflections and Spirit proddings.
The aspect of continuing to reflect on the other readings and taking up some of the activity suggestions during the week made for stimulating sharing the subsequent week. One attendee even made her own journal especially for the study and the focus on creation led to seeing the various aspects of the world around us in a different light, hearing them speak to us in various ways and recording those words and voices in sometimes quite beautiful and creative ways.
Thanks again - it was a wonderfully surprising and uplifting time - God exceeding our expectations.
With appreciation and a hearty "God bless!" on behalf of myself and the group.
Michael Cooke  (Crossway Community Church, Christchurch)

Climate Change Prayer Booklet produced by Charitas Aotearoa NZ. 
A beautiful collection of prayers related to specific aspects of climate change,
for children, youth and adults.
Picture

A Rocha is a significant international Christian mission agency.
Worth checking out their websites for resources
A Rocha New Zealand
Picture
Facebook and email for A Rocha Christchurch:

Liturgical churches around the world are increasingly honouring a Season of Creation in September. These three websites are loaded with links to other sites and worship resources including liturgies and music:
Season of Creation is a global network, encouraging churches to connect in
Let All Creation Praise is a Lectionary resource website 
World Council of Churches website 'Oikoumene' 
Picture

For worship resources with a strong Creation theme visit this wonderful UK website:
Operation Noah, Liturgy resources
​​​
Picture

Climate Intercessors is a global network (based in California).
​Heaps of awesome material on their website
Prayer Resources is a page of links to various international resources.

The Climate Witness Project of the Christian Reformed Church also has wonderful liturgies and prayers.
Picture

Bible and Ecology
www.bibleandecology.org
Bible and Ecology, a site dedicated to exploring how scripture informs sustainability: 
 
Calvin Institute for Refiormed Worship
https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/worship-resources-for-creation-care/
Worship Resources for Creation Care
We confess that God created heaven and earth and everything in it. We sing that this is our Father’s world. Yet, billions of people suffer in places where so much is no longer bright and beautiful. This worship resource guide will help your community plan services that honor our Creator, who invites us to join in caring for the whole creation.

Creation theme Psalms in Conversations (Silvia Purdie):
Psalm 18: The Volcano Psalm   
Psalm 19: Song of the Stars
Psalm 29: The Hurricane Psalm
Psalm 65: He’s got the whole world in his hands!
Psalm 75: The pillars of the earth
Psalm 148: Calling all creation!

​Prayer ...         from 'Caring for Creation', PCANZ
 
Dear Lord our God,
you are Creator of the heavens and the earth.
You form us in your image.
You have entrusted us with the care of your good Creation.
We praise you for the wonder, mystery and awe that we see and feel
in the beauty of the world around us.
 
In the midst of our own fears,
and conscious of those things within
and around us that damage and destroy,
we pray for your guidance.
 
Come among us again
as the Spirit which brings forth new life.
Open our hearts and minds to your wisdom
as we seek to act in ways which honour,
celebrate and care for the world you so love.
In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Caring for Creation
Social Issues Booklet: resource published by the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
www.presbyterian.org.nz/publications/social-issues-booklets

Picture
Canticle for a Kiwi
by Fay Clayton
Bless the Lord, you tumbling mountain torrents
Bless Him, you glaciers, rivers, creeks and streams;
Bless the Lord, you ponds and pools and puddles,
And you limped lakes, reflecting faint star beams.

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette
has a lovely creative collection of hymns and worship resources around care for creation.
Carolyn is a minister in the United Methodist Church in the US, and lives in part of New York with the delightful name of "Owego". Her website is called 'carolynshymns.com'.
At the Dawn of Your Creation
by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

HYMN TO JOY 8.7.8.7 D ("Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee")

At the dawn of your creation, God, you spoke, "Let there be light!"
You divided earth from heaven, you created day and night.
You made sunbeams dance with shadows, you created energy!
Peaceful evenings, bright tomorrows, all began with "Let there be..."

By your word, you formed creation: dry land, water, ocean breeze.
Soon there burst forth vegetation — plants with fruit, majestic trees.
Rain and snow and changing seasons, creatures filling land and sea --
God, your very good creation all began with "Let there be..."

When you made us as your children, sending us throughout your lands,
You commanded, "Have dominion — care for earth; it's in your hands."
Yet we hurt this world you've given; we harm earth and sky and sea.
We forget it's your creation — you, who once said "Let there be..."

At this joyful celebration, may we hear your word anew: *
May we care for your creation, knowing it's a trust from you.
Just as daily there's a dawning, bringing light to all we see,
So we daily hear your calling — you, who once said, "Let there be..."

Biblical References: Genesis 1-2; Psalms 8; Romans 8:18-25
Tune: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824 ("Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee")  (MIDI)
Text: Copyright © 2008 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Email: bcgillette@comcast.net     New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com/

Norman Habel
Over the ditch in Ozzy is a wonderful old word-smith Norman Habel. His hymns and liturgies are striking and evocative.

Picture

Shirley Murray

Where are the voices for the earth?
(Can be sung to the Old 100th hymn tune)

1 Where are the voices for the earth?
Where are the eyes to see her pain,
wasted by our consuming path,
weeping the tears of poisoned rain?

2 Sacred the soil that hugs the seed,
sacred the silent fall of snow,
sacred the world that God decreed,
water and sun and river flow.




​3 Where shall we run who break this code,

where shall tomorrow's children be,
left with the ruined gifts of God,
death for the creatures, land, and sea?

4 We are the voices for the earth,
we who will care enough to cry,
cherish her beauty, clear her breath,
live that our planet may not die.

Christmas and our environment
Bible Reading: ​Luke 1:46-55​, the Magnificat


The problem is, Christmas has become bad for our environment. Millions of children the world over will be given plastic toys which will quickly break and be thrown in the bin, mountains of rubbish, used for a few minutes or hours and then taking hundreds of years to break down.
Santa is the god of the disposable. Our Santa myth drives our consumer world. In the Santa myth the elves manufacture and produce from an infinity of resources, with no care or concern with what happens to all the stuff once it’s delivered.
Our world is not an infinity of resources. Our world cannot cope with all the stuff we are thowing away.
I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make you feel bad, especially at Christmas time. Or maybe I am trying to make you feel bad, because actually I think we have to feel bad. It’s not OK for this to be somebody else’s problem. All of us, every human on the planet, has a share in this problem, and in finding solutions.


... linking back to Mary and her song magnifying the Lord
At Christmas time we focus our gaze in one tiny spot, a baby lying in a manger. And somehow this tiny spot magnifies all of God’s unutterable greatness. ​
Picture
Picture
www.conversations.net.nz
Written by Silvia Purdie 

Resources for life and faith
Proudly powered by Weebly